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Effort to Block Chinese Tech Broadens Beyond Telecom

National Journal, January 15, 2020

By Brendan Bordelon

This week, the entire tech industry awaits the Commerce Department’s response to its pushback against a new rule they say could dissolve the critical ties between US companies and their Chinese suppliers.

“This rulemaking is much broader than just telecom firms,” said Christian Troncoso, director of policy at The Software Alliance. “It explicitly would apply to any information or communications technologies or services. That is virtually every form of technology.”

“This is really a first-of-its-kind mechanism,” Troncoso said. Unlike the powers granted the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States—which focuses only on foreign attempts to purchase US companies—the new rule would allow Commerce to block individual transactions between US and foreign firms.